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Institutes and Centers

Chris Smith

Member

Mr. Chris Smith

Title

Director of Consulting/Founding Partner

Company

The Circumference Group

Chris Smith is Director of Consulting and a founding partner of Circumference Group.

Prior to joining Circumference Group, Chris was Executive Vice President of Network Services of Alltel Corporation, the fifth largest wireless company in the U.S. Prior to its acquisition by Verizon in January 2009, Alltel served over 14 million customers with revenues of approximately $9 billion.

As EVP of Network Services, Chris was responsible for all new technology evolutions, short- and long-term network planning, engineering, operations, capital budgeting and management, and wholesale roaming relationships. In 2001, Chris led a major initiative to shift Alltelâ€™s Engineering and Operations from a de-centralized model across 10 geographic operating areas to a dominant centralized model. This reorganization was the first major centralization effort within the wireless industry, and resulted in significantly reduced operating costs, industry leading capital investment metrics and industry leading network quality.

Chris joined Alltel in 1991 in a management role within sales and marketing. He subsequently served as a General Manager of Operations in two of Alltel’s largest markets, Springfield, Missouri, and Charlotte, North Carolina, respectively. In 1997, when Alltel merged their wireless and wireline companies, Chris became President of the Southeast Region based out of Jacksonville, Florida. In this capacity, Chris was responsible for all aspects of market operations, which included sales and marketing, customer service, budgeting and financial management, and network engineering and operations. He was promoted to EVP of Network Services in 2000.

Prior to Alltel, Chris worked within marketing at Dillard’s headquarters and at Acxiom’s headquarters, both located in Little Rock.

Chris is a graduate from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a degree in business management.